


A Forlorn Stage

by Penke



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: M/M, Max definitely has a crush, Max helps him, Preston is sad, but doesn't realize it ;0, he's secretly pining, hopefully, i don't know how to tag this one, it's sweet tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-07
Updated: 2018-07-07
Packaged: 2019-06-06 19:10:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15201515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Penke/pseuds/Penke
Summary: Preston is missing, and Max seems to be the only one bothered by it. After setting out to find him, what he finds is far from what he had expected.





	A Forlorn Stage

With one glance at the theatre camp stage, you could tell that something was wrong. 

Preston wasn't up there practicing lines, there was no eccentric presence waiting behind the curtains, no fabrics or craft supplies scattered about the stage. It was empty— Eerily empty. 

It was no longer a chirpy and jocund stage with a theatric theatre kid working his heart out upon the stage. Not even Max could look upon that stage and not feel strange. 

"Where the fuck is Preston?" Max suddenly asked, his eyes averting from the stage to look at the two dorky magic kids who were running around the yard, playing who knows what. 

Harrison came to a stop, shrugged his shoulders, and continued on with his little pretend battle with Nerris. Max rolled his eyes, honestly annoyed by the reaction he got.

His eyes went back to the stage, taking in the emptiness. He never really cared for Preston, and really having him gone was just one less nuisance for him to deal with, but this just didn't feel right. 

Without that eccentric theatre kid, nothing seemed to be right. The short boy made his way up to the stage, his dark skinned hands pushing against the curtains go check behind them. Nothing. Preston wasn't even on the stage, which was incredibly rare. That dork was always up there, working on a new play. 

Where could that fucker be? Max took a deep breath and left the stage. Finding that auburn hair was fucker would surely fix this empty feeling that had made its way through the camp. Without Preston here to scream in everyone's faces about various plays and musicals, it just didn't feel right.

He began to make his way towards Preston's tent in hopes of finding him there. On the way, he'd occasionally have to shoo some campers, or David, away like always before he could continue. By the time he had arrived, he was cursing his small legs and wishing he was taller. 

Max lazily pulled back the sheet and peeked into the tent. There were papers scattered across the tent. There were messy piles and balls of crumbled up paper scattered across the floor, with several highlighters, a pen, pencil, and eraser sitting upon one of the messy piles.

The young boy reached down and picked up a few of the papers, sifting through them. It looked like Preston had been trying to write another play; No surprise there. On one of the papers, parts had been highlighted, some scribbled out, some circled, some notes had been made on the sidelines and so on. On the other, the whole thing was simply scribbled out, heck, it even looked like it had been stabbed with a pencil a few times.

He shrugged, dropping the papers onto the ground. Max made his way out of the tent, taking a deep breath as he began to think of other places to search for the fellow camper. Then he spotted a paper by Preston's tent. Then another nearby, and another after that. He picked up the first one, examining it. It was more of his writing, notes and highlights and all. He followed the trail, picking up every piece of paper along the way. It wasn't long before he was in the forest, holding a small pile of Preston's writings. 

He wasn't far inside, but it was far enough to where he couldn't be easily seen if any campers peeked in. At this point, he couldn't find any other papers. There were too many pushes and trees, and the grass was all too tall for him to easily find one. 

Just when Max was about to turn back, and simply tell David that he had lost another camper, he heard something. As soon as he heard it, he knew who it was. It was Preston, and he sounded close. He sounded different than usual though— It didn't hold any of that familiar fierce vigorousness that everyone at the camp had grown so accustomed to. 

It sounded plaintive. It was stuffy, and aggressive, and he could probably /hear/ the years in the voice that called out. As Max made his way towards it, he litshed to the words being said, and he couldn't help but roll his eyes. The situation began to make more sense now. Preston was sad, and was expressing his feelings to himself through long, poignant words of dialogue out in the forest. He still had yet to find out why the boy was sad though, of course. He was using so many similes, metaphors, and big fancy words that he still couldn't quite make out what the fuck he was going on about.

Upon arriving, he immediately set out to find out. "Preston?" Max called, popping up behind the taller boy. Preston had been by a tree, papers all around him, under him even, as he laid there and dramatically confessed his feelings to the open forest around him. 

The auburn hair was big jumped away in surprise, screaming out with that signature high pitch. "Max! What are you doing here?!" He exclaimed, "Did you hear my tête-à-tête between myself in the forest?!

"Stop with the fancy words, you aren't in the 1500's." Max groaned, tossing the papers in his hands on top of Preston. 

"Alas! My failed works! Why must you curse me with the sight of them?" 

"You left them as a trail coming into the forest. It's how I fucking found you, dipshit." Max plopped down on the grass beside Preston, watching as the other boy pushed the writings off of his torso. "What the fuck are you doing out here anyway?"

The pale boy slowly reached up to his face, wiping away a few tears that had been rolling down them. "Why should I tell you?" He retorted, his voice rough and stuffy from crying. "You'll probably just laugh at me, or blackmail me! Not to mention that you've always been a little rat, ruining my plays and making fun of my interests!"

"Preston, I followed a literal fucking trail of papers from your tent, into this weird ass forest just to find you. You know what a lazy piece of shit I am, why would I come all the way out here just to laugh or blackmail you?" 

Preston slowly glanced at the boy beside him. "You followed the papers specifically to find me?" He questioned, narrowing his eyes. "That's even more suspicious!" 

Max sighed, shaking his head. "Listen, tell me why the fuck you're crying in a pile of your shitty writings, and I'll tell you why I came out here to find you." 

"That sounds like a terrible deal," The golden eyed camper whined. "But I suppose it's better than talking to the forest." 

Max smirked, tapping his knee as he waited for Preston's explanation. He watched as Preston reached up to his hair, fluffing the sides before adjusting his puffy collar. 

"Well, as you already know, I was crying out here with my writings and scripts," He began to speak, "Truth be told, with how the last play turned out and all the hatred that you fellow campers are always spewing towards my plays, I've grown a bit... Unsatisfied with them all. I've never been good at coming up with original ideas for them, or being creative with the stories, but put my heart and soul into them all only to result in failure. I needed some time to let out my feelings before continuing on even stronger than before! This is just a minor set back in my theatrical journey! I know that this is just one bump on the road that'll make me more resilient! Not even Shakespeare went without criticism and dissatisfaction!" 

The auburn haired boy ended his speech with a clap, his eyes practically sparkling while Max looked at him with wide eyes. Max hadn't been expecting such a speech, especially not one like that. It went from downcast to filled with hope, and the feeling of moving on and getting better after a good cry. It was impressive that he could take the things that would hurt and find a way to twist them into something that would motivate him. 

"You don't have to make yourself look cool Preston, just say that your feelings got hurt and you needed to cry." Max stated, sliding his hands into the pockets of his hoodie. 

Preston huffed. "Alright you dollard, now it's your turn. You need to tell me why you came looking for me!"

"The camp didn't feel right without you." The green eyes camper shrugged, refusing to explain any more. "Now pick up your papers. You've done enough crying. We should get back to camp before David and Gwen come looking for us— I'm not in the mood to be lectured by those two idiots." 

He held out his hand to help Preston up off of where he sat on the ground. The other camper looked up at him suspiciously, cautiously even, before reaching out and taking hold of his hand. Once up, he began to gather his papers while Max leaned against a tree, watching and occasionally even picking up a few for Preston. 

It wasn't long before Preston had a pile of papers in his hands, and the forest ground was cleared of all the writings and scripts. Max placed the papers he had on top of the pile, then set off towards the camp with Preston.

Preston went back to his tent to put everything away when Max made his way to the mess hall, after he figured out that the rest of the campers were there. Once he entered, he was greeted by Nikki and Neil, who immediately began to ask him questions about where he had been. 

"Relax guys, I just went to find Preston. There's a weird, out of place and empty feeling in the camp without the guy." He explained. "I'm sure you guys felt it too." 

"I mean, I knew he was missing, but I didn't feel empty or anything." Neil stated, raising a brow at Max. 

Nikki nodded in agreement. "Yeah! I didn't feel anything like that! Playing with Nerris felt no different than usual! I think it was just you, Max!" 

Max seemed to be surprised by what his friends were saying. Was he really the only one that had felt off without Preston being here? That couldn't be! It wasn't like he cared about the guy, or wanted him here, or anything like that! Surely someone else had felt some sort of emptiness without that eccentric theatre kid around! 

"That can't be right." He huffed, heading up to get his snack from the quarter master while his friends continued eating their own animal crackers. As he took his package of crackers from the old man, the doors to the mess hall opened. 

In walked in Preston, who had his usual eccentric aura once again. He puffed his hair like usual, putting his hands on his waist as he strutted into the hall. Max watched closely as Preston returned to his usual group of friends, smoking a little at the sight. He seemed to be much better now that he had let out all his feelings. 

He made his way over to the taller boy, deciding that there was one last thing he should do before they fully parted ways. Once at Preston's side, he put a hand on his shoulder, causing the light skinned boy to turn and look at him.

"Max? What are you doing?" Preston questioned, narrowing his eyes at the fellow camper. Max leaned in close to his ear.

"If you ever need to do something like that again, just come find me." Was all he said, before he opened up his package of animal crackers and retested to his own group of friends. Preston watched as the shorter male scurried off, his gaze slowly returning to his own friend group over time.

Did Max actually… Care for him?

It was too early to say for sure, but now he knew that there was much more to Max that meets the eye.


End file.
